The present invention relates to an apparatus for opening and closing shutters of an opening such as a fenestration of a building.
The invention is particularly well-suited for use with a shutter which is hinged about a horizontal axis at the bottom of a fenestration. It is also suited for such shutters hinged about a horizontal axis at the top of a fenestration. The closure systems can open and close the shutter by causing it to pivot about the horizontal axis, under either manual or automatic control.
In buildings having a long horizontal fenestration or window, a long shutter covering such a fenestration and pivoted about a horizontal axis would be subject to forces acting perhaps unequally along the length of the shutter. These unequal forces have been viewed by the art as giving rise to destructive torsions and imbalances, hence this construction technique has not been available for implementation.
The present invention, on the other hand, provides a closure system which allows such a long shutter to be accurately controlled and balanced so that unequal forces do not arise to result in destructive effects.